The shocking fall of communism in Eastern and Central Europe in the late eighties was remarkable for both its rapidity and its scope. The specifics of communism's demise varied among nations, but similarities in both the causes and the effects of these revolutions were quite similar. As well, all of the nations involved shared the common goals of implementing democratic systems of government and moving to market economies. In each of these nations, the communist …showed first 75 words of 1621 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1621 total…predict how the German experience will turn out. As Preuss writes, "The transition from an authoritarian political regime and its concomitant command economy to a liberal democracy and a capitalist economy is as unprecedented as the short-term integration of two extremely different societies - one liberal-capitalist, one authoritarian-socialist - into one nation state" (57). In other words, the unification of Germany is one of the most complicated and unprecedented historical events since the unification of Germany.